“The Spud” will be the place where you find this Spud providing opinions about a variety of topics about the amazing, artistic and athletic form of entertainment known as professional wrestling. As this great sport of ours is loved by many, it means that our opinions will differ from time to time and that is OK. You are as entitled to your view as I am to mine, the only difference being I am silly enough to blog mine. My first piece is on why I believe there has never been a better time to be a fan of Australian professional wrestling. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

I am writing this on Halloween night and at this moment with still two full months of 2018 to go, it has been a monumental year for professional wrestling in Australia. In no particular order, just some of the accomplishments include:

Buddy Murphy and the Iiconics star at the WWE Super Showdown at the Melbourne Cricket Ground

Toni Storm wins the Mae Young Classic

Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis) win the Progress Tag Team Titles in the Thunderbastard tag team match at their “Hello Wembley” spectacular.

Gino Gambino defends the Melbourne City Wrestling title in Europe and answers Trent Seven’s Atlas title open challenge at a Progress Chapter show.

Rhea Ripley becomes the inaugural WWE UK Women’s Champion

Robbie Eagles joins the Bullet Club OGs, competes with Taiji Ishiimori in the Super Jr Tag league, submitting the legendary Jushin Thunder Liger in his debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling

Ancient Order of the Nations (AKA the 4 Nations) reach the final of the 2018 Chikara King of Trios Tournament.

Madison Eagles defeats Mike Quackenbush at the King of Trios weekend

Nick Aldis defends the prestigious NWA Title AKA the Ten Pounds of Gold against Jack Bonza, Jonah Rock, Robbie Eagles and Mark Cometti on Australian soil during the House of Hardcore Australian tour

UK based product Progress Wrestling came to Australia having incredible collaboration shows with PWA, MCW and EPW.

Some of Australia’s best including TMDK, Robbie Eagles, Mick Moretti and Jack Bonza compete agains NJPW superstars during the NJPW tour of Australia.

Elliot Sexton competes in several Progress shows on their United States tour.

Jonah Rock, Robbie Eagles and Adam Brooks compete at BOLA 2018

Shazza McKenzie appears on NXT TV against Kairi Sane

Robbie Eagles tears down the house (again) against Will Ospreay at PWA Call to Arms 2018.

The Filip Brothers, Indi Hartwell, Shazza McKenzie, Jessica Troy among other wow United States audiences as they toured the country.

Paris De Silva coined ‘Paris De Gif’ by Mick Moretti after two GIFs of his incredible athleticism (and that of his sparring partners) go viral - There is also a phenomenal Mario Kart one that needs to come back, it is outstanding.

Mick Moretti provides the Australian Wrestling Scene (and the New Zealand one for that matter) a new hashtag - #NowWeConquer - signalling the next stage of the A + NZ’s plan to take over wrestling, after already being noticed.

MCW 100 - a phenomenal achievement in itself, but in front of a record crowd.

Madison Eagles qualifying for Pro Wrestling Eve’s She-1 tournament

I could continue, as these are just some of the highlights of what has truly been a special year of Australian Wrestling. All the performers, the promoters, the crew and the fans, thank you for your contributions to making it a year to remember. Everywhere you look in professional wrestling, there is an Australian wrestler tearing things up. Australian talents are at the peak of their powers. So it begs the question, if you are not familiar with the Australian Wrestling scene, to quote a memorable piece of Australian tourism history, “Where the bloody hell are you?”. I am sorry for quoting that, but seriously, what are you doing? We have some of the world’s best talent wrestling in our cities and are you just going to wait until they are announced “from Sydney Australia” on a WWE show before you take notice? Not all wrestling promotions are created equal, but there are some incredible wrestling promotions in every state, putting in the hard yards to take this scene to the next level, with wrestlers who love this thing so much that they work 9 to 5, whilst attending wrestling training, whilst dieting, whilst going to the gym, whilst studying, whilst looking after dependents, whilst paying bills. Wrestlers who are just as good as many currently living off of wrestling full time. Imagine how good these wrestlers would actually be if they could let go of the 9 to 5 or the study with casual job and were able to devote more time to their passions.

A number of Australian wrestlers if they were able to save up, pack their lives up and move overseas would succeed anywhere in the world. But a lot of them want to able to live off of wrestling here in Australia and see the scene boom here, whilst still having their homes, their families, their pets, their friends and their lives. That is where you come in. Go and support your local Australian wrestling shows. Tickets are cheaper then going to your favourite sporting team’s home game and you are guaranteed to get more nail biting, riveting stories. Stream some of the big events from promotions you can’t attend for cheaper than your Netflix subscription or a rental on the iTunes store. There is no excuse, support the local product, just like you would “Australian Made” products. Follow these talented young people watch them achieve them ascend to wherever they want to get to, whether that is touring Australia regularly or hoisting a WWE championship on their shoulder. I am sorry to sound preachy, but I am really excited about the amazing product available in Australia. You don’t have to look world wide, it is in our own backyard.

For those that are fans and have heard all of the above before, I have a favour to ask of you. Choose a friend that is a fan of WWE, IMPACT, NJPW, ROH etc but is unfamiliar with your favourite local promotion. It might take some convincing at first, but take them to the next show, immerse them in what we all know and love. More likely than not, they will ask you about the next show afterwards. I took my brother to PWA Colosseum, he is hooked and can’t wait until PWA’s Friday’s are for the Babes in December. Word of mouth is priceless marketing and if you love what you are seeing, you should be telling everyone you can. and getting them to go and see if for themselves. You have a part to play in getting wrestling in Australia to the next level.

For those looking for some guidance to get them down into the rabbit hole that is Australian professional wrestling, check out the following for starters:

PWA: Colosseum

MCW: New Horizons

Wrestle Rampage: Ground Zero

EPW’s Vendetta 2018

Progress x PWA, Progress x MCW, Progress EPW

MCW 100

PWA: Call to Arms 2018

Conco and the Fudge Podcast - Hosted by two fantastic performers which will also introduce you to some of the best running around Australia at the moment.

Wrestle Radio Australia Podcast: Todd Eastman interviews an Australian Wrestling figure and promotes wrestling shows around the country

I don’t want to give you too much too soon, so I will leave you with those to start. Pretty sure in no time you will be messaging me telling me what to watch!

Thank you for reading the first “spud”, I appreciate it. There truly has never been a better time to be an Australian wrestling fan. Just look at all those huge highlights above. Fly the flag for your local promotion! Fly the flag for Australian Professional Wrestling!